Interviews (52)
Interview with Winston Kelley, Executive Director of the NASCAR Hall of Fame
Assumptions would be that Halls of Fame would naturally seek to strive in all of those categories, but alas this is not always the case, and certainly not the standard of all of the institutions we discuss on a regular basis. For example, the Hockey Hall of Fame, while striving to be as interactive with visitors as possible, struggles with the limitations of their physical Hall. The Baseball Hall of Fame, while considered to be the most respected Hall of all the sports, has an impressive view of its past, yet lacks focus on its future. The Football Hall of Fame has no interactive component and the WWE Hall of Fame does not even have a physical structure to call its own. Jimmy Snuka: 29 Years After the Famous Leap
Interview with Marty Jannetty
Visually, it was easy to make that initial comparison. Both teams came out to Rock and Roll Music (not common in the late 80’s), both were relatively undersized, both had similar ring attire and both featured one wrestler who had blond hair and a teammate with brown. As a fourteen year old teenage boy who was in a stage in life where success with the opposite sex was sadly a mystery, identifying with a pair of good looking twenty-somethings who drew the screams of every girl in the audience (seemingly regardless of age) was difficult.Interview with Former WWE Diva, Dawn Marie (Wrestler’s Rescue)
Interviewing professional wrestlers is an enjoyable benefit of running this website. Normally, the excitement would center on questions on their in ring careers and backstage stories. This was not the case when we spoke with former ECW and WWE Diva, Dawn Marie; for although she worked with some of the iconic stars of Extreme Championship Wrestling and performed for two and a half years for Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment it was her post wrestling career that we were anxious to discuss with her.
Pete Rose Interview
On August 25, 2011, the New York Yankees made baseball history by becoming the first team to ever hit three grand slam home runs in one game. Many people that day would have heard that future Trivial Pursuit question on the radio or maybe by watching Sportscenter. On that day, I got that information from the person sitting next to me who received the news over his I-Phone. The person who shared the news of the Yankees accomplishment with the exuberance of a ten year old boy who had just gone to the see his first Major League Game. That person was the man who has more hits than anyone else in Baseball history, Pete Rose.
Interview with Tyson Nash; Former NHL Player, and Current Color Commentator with the Phoenix Coyotes
I remember as a kid pouring through the statistics on the back of hockey cards. They were fairly simple back then as there were no numbers beyond Games Played, Goals, Assists, Point and Penalty Minutes to look at. They say that numbers never lie, but numbers never tell the whole story. It was natural to look at those with the high points tallies from the year before, or the twenty year veteran whose annual stats were printed so small that even eight year old eyes had to squint to see them. Each one of those players I studied for hours on that 1980-81 O-Pee Chee set took different paths to the National Hockey League and each athlete took on different roles to excel there. A generation later, a new era of statistical analysis has emerged. Constant exposure to media has pulled back the curtain of traditional numbers and appreciation of players who could do the little things that could help win games emerged. We here had notinhalloffame had the pleasure of speaking with Tyson Nash; one of those unsung heroes whose career cannot be judged by a quick look at a hockey card.
Interview with Alicia Kramer (Daughter of Football Legend Jerry Kramer) speaks to us about her campaign to get her father in the Football Hall of Fame.
Every day at our website we debate those who we feel should be considered for potential Hall of Fame induction in their respective fields. With the vast majority of names we list, cases could be made against those enshrinements. With Jerry Kramer, the number one selection on our second annual football list, we feel strongly that there is no argument against his place in Canton.
Chavo Guerrero Sr.
It is virtually impossible to watch WWE programming without seeing a second (or even third) generation performer. As of this writing, thirteen members of the current roster have a parent who competed as a professional wrestler, and there is a lot of indication that this number will grow. Florida Championship Wrestling (the training ground for the WWE) has many more second generation sports entertainers waiting to continue the legacies put forth by their parents.
Nash the Slash
Regular followers of our website know that one of our regular themes is challenging just what the actual definition of Rock and Roll is. It is one thing for us to discuss this topic, but quite the other to actually do it. Recently, we had the pleasure of interviewing Nash the Slash, who despite eschewing conventional Rock wisdom managed to become an International star.
Interview with Mick Foley
Rick Martel
Like so many, I started watching Professional Wrestling in 1984. At that time Vince McMahon was deep in the process of taking his company National, and turning both the World Wrestling Federation and his biggest star, Hulk Hogan into household names. As I fell in love with the pageantry and spectacle of the industry I wanted to learn as much of it as I could.","Like so many, I started watching Professional Wrestling in 1984. At that time Vince McMahon was deep in the process of taking his company National, and turning both the World Wrestling Federation and his biggest star, Hulk Hogan into household names. As I fell in love with the pageantry and spectacle of the industry I wanted to learn as much of it as I could. Back then, the easiest way to do that was by magazines, specifically the Pro Wrestling Illustrated series. It was there I learned about the competition to the WWF, specifically the National Wrestling Alliance and the American Wrestling Association. This allowed me to learn of names like Harley Race, Ric Flair, The Road Warriors and the man who was the AWA World Champion at that time, Rick Martel. Little did I know that over twenty five years later I would have the chance to interview the man who would become the man who transformed himself into “The Model”, one of the top villains of the late 80’s and early 90’s for the WWF.
Charles Connor - The Original Drummer for Little Richard
It isn’t every day that you get to speak to a legend. Recently, we here at notinhalloffame.com had the opportunity to chat with Charles Connor, the original drummer for Little Richard. Our conversation with Charles allowed us to speak to a man who was not only a witness to the birth of Rock and Roll, but also the man who created its engine.
Charles Connor was born in the cradle of American Music, New Orleans, Louisiana, to a Creole mother and a Merchant Marine father from Santo Domingo. Connor jokes that when his mother would walk by a funeral procession, he would “be kicking in the womb along with the music.” Recognizing his talent at a young age (Connor earned money as a toddler tap dancing for white tourists), his parents bought him his first drum set. Even when he was not at his set, Connor would literally bang out beats on whatever was in front of him. This included school desks that drove teachers crazy, but Charles couldn’t resist the temptation as he “just loved the sound those hollow desks would make.”